Frenetic ramblings from the start of the "War on Terror" logging my attempts to film outside Finsbury park mosque over 3 years and sitting through all the subsequent court cases. These days I write about whatever and generally stay out of trouble. Do visit Youtube.com/malungtvnews

December 02, 2012

A FORMER MI5 agent who spied on hate preacher Abu Qatada has vowed to bring him to justice at any cost.

Reda Hassaine, 50, tracked Qatada for the security ­services in the 1990s and also helped them snare Abu ­Hamza.

But he claims he was ditched by spooks after his cover was blown when he was beaten up by the extremist’s henchmen in 1999.

The
French-Algerian spy last night lifted the lid on his ­mission to
“finish” Qatada, 52, which will see him ­publish a dossier of evidence
against the extremist in a tell-all book.

Qatada was freed last month after spending six years in custody for being a danger to the public.

He
won a long- running battle against deportation to his homeland of
Jordan and is now living with his wife and children in West London.

The cleric had been convicted in his absence in Jordan of terrorist offences in 1999.

Mr Hassaine told us: “It is between Reda Hassaine and Abu Qatada.

“This guy has to pay and, thank God, I helped get Abu Hamza sent to jail, probably for the rest of his life.

“But Abu Qatada, he is still here on the streets. The final battle is now the book.

“The
British Government will be obliged to start a public ­inquiry regarding
all the lost years for my colleagues and ­myself.” He added: “The book
will be ­published first in America in ­August around the time of Abu
Hamza’s trial.

“Abu Hamza, for me, is finished. But for Abu Qatada it is a ­different story.

“If he was sent (to Jordan) two weeks ago, it would have been finished.

“But
this decision keeps me and many other people ­angry about it and
­trying to find what we can do to sort out this big problem of Abu
Qatada staying in the UK.

“In
other countries it would be a political decision but not in the UK. The
Queen wants him to be deported, the Government wants him to be
­deported.”

Mr Hassaine also claimed there had been contact between the Government and ­active ­terrorists.

He
called on ministers to come clean over the so-called “covenant of
security” – a deal allegedly forged between security services and
Islamic extremists in the 1990s in return for Britain being struck off a
list of potential ­terror targets...

November 12, 2012

Abu Qatada is to be freed after winning his latest appeal against extradition, in a major blow to Home Secretary Theresa May.
The Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) decided the radical cleric would not get a fair trial in Jordan because evidence obtained via torture could be used against him.
This is despite the Home Secretary securing assurances from the country that this would not happen.
Qatada will be released on bail after Home Office lawyers failed to persuade Siac judges he should remain behind bars.
They insisted that the Palestinian-born Jordanian cleric, real name Omar Mahmoud Mohammed Othman, poses "an enormous risk to national security".
But Edward Fitzgerald QC, for Qatada, declared: "Enough is enough. It has gone on for many years now. There is no prospect of deportation taking place within a reasonable time, in fact there is no prospect at present of deportation at all."

November 09, 2012

The son of Islamic cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri has been jailed for 11 years over an armed raid on a Norfolk jewellers.
Imran Mostafa, 20, from Slough, was convicted with three London men at Norwich Crown Court in September...
...The court was told Mostafa had been sucked into offending because he had been isolated from mainstream society as parents warned their children to stay away from him.
His barrister Roderick Price said: "In his early childhood he had a very good relationship with his father who, at that time, was not in prison.
"But attempts to socialise outside his home often failed because of who his father was. Friendships proved difficult because children would be told by their parents not to play with him."...

October 30, 2012

Just finished it, I thought it was going to be good. It was excellent. This obviously contains spoliers, so if you are reading for fun, just buy the book. it is really worth it.

"Corporate American" with a taste for travel off the beaten track gets kidnapped, doesn't take it lying down and in the cross fire of being held as a human shield for not a short time either, she finds a rugged cool headed survivalist in herself and lives to tell the tale. Not only lives, but reappraises her life and follows the story of her kidnap wherever it may lead.

Obviously I was reading it, and if I was a journalist would have read it ages ago for the cross over with this blog. Her meeting with Hamza in Finsbury park is very interesting, she obviously arrived before they closed down the mosque, just before my interest in this story began. I will be very interested to hear her testimony in a New York court, as I will be to hear how much invovlement Hamza had over satellite phone in her kidnap.

The really interesting stuff for me was her encounter with Shahid Butt, and Hamza's sons Mustafa and Mohssain Ghalian. It seems like she spent about the same amount of time as I did with them but in very different circumstances, as she spoke to them in a Yemeni jail. She seems in no doubt that they were on a mission to bomb British interests in Yemen, although she says that Hamza told her that he didn't know his sons had gone and told her he was angry with them.

She definitely saw a different Shahid Butt than I did, not surprisingly I suppose, but she reads a lot more into Mohssin's reticence than I did. I thought he was just a bit shy and didn't even realise he was part of the group I was being introduced to. I couldn't make any comment about either of them really, or about the merits of British relationships with Yemen whether they are a good thing, a bad thing or if Muslims should be doing something about it. I would imagine if you believed they were a bad thing and you believed in your religion as a Muslim it would feel like it was incumbent about you to do something about it, and according to the CIA training manuals the Encyclopedia of Afghan Jihad is based on, bombing strategic buildings and boats would do the trick, and if you were caught in the process your mates would probably kidnap some Westerners. I know Hamza has preached from the Koran about such things.

Mary Quinn is a great writer about this stuff. I sort of wish she would become a War on Terr-r journalist as she is way better than most of them. She says what she thinks about things no problem but she also tries to understand situations from all perspectives which is the best part of reading her story.

Mustafa Kamel Mustafa needs all the help he can get while at the
Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan awaiting trial, attorney
Jeremy Schneider said after a hearing......He has pleaded not
guilty to conspiring with some Seattle men to set up a terrorist
training camp in Oregon and to helping abduct two American tourists and
14 other people in Yemen in 1998...

... Schneider
told US District Judge Katherine B. Forrest that Mustafa, 54, "has an
extraordinary knowledge and interest in helping with his defence"
despite the challenges of being housed in solitary confinement in a
prison wing where defendants facing terrorism charges are typically
held."This defendant is going to get the appropriate resources"
necessary for a fair trial, the judge said as she assigned a legal team
of at least five people to assist him."This is an almost never-ending job," Schneider said as his client looked toward the judge."This case occurred approximately 14 years ago covering three continents."Schneider
said researching the case will likely cause the defence team to reach
out to Yemen, England and Pakistan to collect evidence.Prosecutors said 47 boxes of materials were being shipped from England, including computer disks and hard drives.Outside
court, Schneider said Mustafa was "ready, willing and able" to assist
in his defence but it was difficult for attorneys to confer with him
because the prison forces them to interact with a barrier between them...

Al-Shabaab made the threats in a series of messages on Twitter, The Times reports.One tweet threatened the biggest Islamist terrorist attack yet on
Britain: "The nightmare that surreptitiously looms on British shores is
bound to eclipse the horrors of 7/7 and 21/7 combined."Another read: "Britain will pay the heftiest price for its brazen
role in the war against Islam and endless brutality against innocent
Muslims."Al-Shabaab also said it would "go to every possible length to attain the freedom of imprisoned Muslim scholars".

... What's does an alleged terrorist have to do to get some attention in this city?...

... The quiet reception of al-Masri stands in stark contrast to the
outcry caused by plans announced in 2009 to try 9/11 mastermind Khalid
Sheik Mohammed in New York federal court.

"It really seems to show that this whole panic and screaming about
not having terrorists tried in New York or anywhere else in this country
is really red herring," Brigitte Nacos, a political science professor
who specializes in terrorism and mass media at Columbia University,
tells the Voice. "This guy is certainly not less dangerous than anyone else New York had to deal with."...

September 26, 2012

If I was really boring I would count up how many "Abu Hamza deported" and "Abu Hamza: Extradition halted" blogs I had posted. Anyway turns out Mr Hamza can stay and in other news Its the end of the Monarchy. Otherwise nothing happened today.

May 24, 2012

Yeah I haven't really been keeping up on this at all. I don't consider myself any sort of campaigner anymore, I'd like to hear the US evidence against Mr Hamza, particularly what he said over the satellite phone in Yemen. I know one of the families surviving relatives confronted him about it, I don't know the result. I have had no contact with the rest of the campaigns this is all very interesting but a long way in the past for me. For me its all about this at the mo-

April 21, 2012

Yeah, came slewing to a halt on my bike this afternoon not cos of the intermittent rain but because I was passing the window of Nobrow press who I somehow hadn't noticed before though upon speaking to the guy behind the counter I found out that they had been there for two years and print their own line of very individual comics. I bought two and they were very reasonably priced as well.

I haven't been blogging very much because I have been working on my own graphic novel which may or may not be connected to the subject matter of this blog (what do you think?) An idea that hatched itself a long while ago was incubated in fear over a two year period then splurged out and wrote itself in a week and has since had an interesting journey through skill pages looking for an artist- and that's all I am saying for now.

Apart from all this I am going to The Great British Tattoo Show tomorrow looking for tattoo equipment as I want to start drawing on the bits of my legs which don't see the sun very often!

April 19, 2012

Well I finally got through all the articles and on the way found that the Rev Coles has finally been "outed" (again!) by The Daily Mail and they have actually done a decent job of the story wonder of all wonders though without his consent. I met him after being directed his way by one of Hamza's cohorts after his arrest in 2005. I thought I would do it properly and went along to one of his church services. At the end when they have a really nice ritual where everyone greets the people around them the woman next to me started describing the trouble the Revered had with the congregation accepting him, and the penny dropped- and blew my mind.

Speaking to Rev Coles he asked me not to write anything connecting them so I didn't cos I didn't want to be responsible for "Hamza visited by gay vicar" in the tabloids. He is a really nice guy and I am glad the Daily Mail have reported his impressions of Hamza in full as these are the impressions I got as well.

From the rest of the news around the subject of deportation I noticed people rightly pointing out that the missing piece in the puzzle Haroon Rashid Aswat is curiously not on his way to the States. I am not really into conspiracy theories of any kind, but this one seems to hold weight as I heard from someone who was detained with him that he disappeared kicking and shouting in the night last seen sane so I am tempted to believe this one.

April 16, 2012

Yes, I know the Europeans have finally decided to deport Abu Hamza . I found out mid tangle with the gurgling toad Buddha and the computers are very strict there. Well everything is very strict there but more about that later. I was paying back my debt serving in the kitchen this time but was still pretty intense. I will read through all the news about Hamza over the next few days and maybe try and get some sort of reaction from those who used to be closer to him. I wonder if people in the States will pick up this blog as he heads over there..

February 29, 2012

Proud and Prejudiced on Channel 4OD looks like it was really fun to film and covers a whole lot of stuff around Luton, including the Breivik "connection" and the EDLs visit to Tower Hamlets. Good access to Sayful Islam as well who is notoriously difficult to speak to with a camera running.

February 14, 2012

...Hamza, 53, who was jailed for seven years in February 2006 for inciting murder and race hate, spoke to MPs from the jail as he fights extradition to the United States on terror charges.

Members of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee visited Hamza at the prison on November 28 last year.

Their report on the roots of violent radicalisation said: ''Abu Hamza believed the drivers of radicalisation to be grievance, guilt and capability.

''Grievances were driven by British foreign policy (relating to Palestine and Afghanistan) and a sense that the Prophet was being mocked.''

It went on: ''He did not believe that unemployment was a source of grievance, and considered that groups who suggested it was were 'blackmailing' the Government for funding.

''Guilt was driven by a feeling that you were safe but your brother was not and you could not help him.''

The report also said that Hamza denied that his sermons contributed to radicalisation.

''He believed it was enough for people to watch the news to be radicalised and in any case he condemned the 'wrong kind of violence', where third parties were injured or killed,'' it said.

''He told Muslims to express their grievances and guilt through lobbying, donating money and educating people.''

The report went on: ''In terms of radicalisation in prisons, Mr Abu Hamza noted that prisons were a good environment for contemplation and that it was usual for prisoners to seek to re-evaluate their lives.''...